Infosys-Oracle Blog

• Let's reuse components wherever possible, as much as we can. Why reinvent the wheel when we can adapt our architecture?
• Let's develop solutions that are self-sustaining. Use virtualization to reduce dependence on energy and automate to minimize manual intervention.
• Let's pay for IT services as and when we need them. The cloud provides us with lessons on fiscal discipline.
• Let's ensure our businesses and consumers are mobile, better informed and connected. We must empower the digital generation and cultivate customers.

Here's wishing all of you a very happy and fulfilling new year.

Ravi Kumar S. is the Vice President and Global Head - Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Limited.

Posted by Ravi Kumar S. at 4:30 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 11 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

In Simple terms, Quality is nothing but attaining excellence in what we do, being it manufacturing or in service industries.

We all be hearing these words regarding the Product quality as

"Yesterday was customer's need, Today is Customer's Satisfaction, and Tomorrow will be Customer's Expectations."

That  mean each and every product or the  material going out of the industries or coming in should have excellent  quality standards so that the finished good  is of best quality . Because Deficient incoming raw material will affect the final product and spoil the product name in the market. So in today's scenario following quality only at Manufacturing Plant level  is not sufficient , but also training  the Vendors (Suppliers) regarding  quality procedures , Complying with quality standards is must .

For example, we are running Casting industry and supplied with raw aluminum ingots from our vendor. You trust the Vendor and use the ingots in production. The result may be Complaints from Customers about defective castings. Why is it so? What happened suddenly?

The reason may be required quality checks are not carried out by your vendor as per your specification or checks are not per industry standards. At the end of the day you lose valuable customer...

Way to Avoid...
"Not to accept the items without proper quality certificates from the vendor. These certificates should most likely be certified by an Inspecting firm".

Oracle E-Business Suite Provides reports in Oracle Process manufacturing Quality module which can shipped along with products. Certificate of Analysis & Certificate of Conformance are two such reports which are available in OPM and can be customized through flexible tools like XML publishers.

Apart from above, OPM Quality also provides robust quality management through important features like Sampling plan, Non Conformance reporting, Corrective actions, Testing methods, Collection plan to capture quality parameters etc. 

Posted by Ashish Namdeo at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

What is MES ?

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) acts as central repository for all the data transacted, but there is no way of controlling the operations or passing the information between plant control system & ERP in integrated manner.

MES (Manufacturing execution systems) help in detailing the process and also controlling the operations through the systems. MES uses the data and provide results on the plant activities in minimal time. MES Collects the data from plant system, store them, and the output are used to control the functions in enhancing productivity and process on the whole.

MES for Oracle Process Manufacturing (OPM):

MES for Process Manufacturing adds new batch execution functionality and increases usability for manufacturing operators. 

MES for OPM provides features like Operator Workbench, Dispending - planning as well as execution, Labeling, Electronic Master and Control Batch Record. It provides pre-built APIs which can streamline device integration.

OPM MES Key benefits:

Increased Production unit control - with MES we can control each and every activity of the Shop floor. This avoids unnecessary time spent in passing the information and getting approvals for the operations.

Reducing Product defects- MES provide fully integrated system which will help in flawless flow of information across the Unit. This in turn will reduce the defects during production.

For example, previously we used to provide SOP (Standard operations Procedures) by way of printout. But now in MES, we can attach Screen shots clearly showing the Operations. These provide better understanding for the operator and minimize errors.

Better Quality systems - The MES feature of better control and increased visibility will help the industries to enhance themselves for better quality standards.

Reduced Workforce - Since most of the activities are integrated, the labor force can be reduced to certain extent and can be used in other productive activities. This will help in optimum utilization of resources.

Eco friendly - Recent statistics say that nearly 90% paper manufacturing is made of Wood pulp. For this 35% of trees are felled every year leading to deforestation on large scale. Also Tones of papers are used in Industries for Storing and transacting data. The paperless transactions and electronic record keeping in MES will save natural resources and help in Eco system improvement.

Posted by Ashish Namdeo at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Suthersan Jayaprakash, Technology Analyst- Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

The dimensions and hierarchies form the base for operations in OFSA suite of products. Any business assumptions or processing parameters are built based on the dimensions. The dimensions in OFSA are nothing but various attributes of the business. Something like organizational structure, or the business offered by the organization, or the products and services that it offers.

So now what makes the handling of dimensions and hierarchies better in OFSAA 5.1. We recall that hierarchies in OFSA 4.5 allowed the addition of leaf members only at the deepest level. Say if you have a 4 level hierarchy the leaf member can be attached only in the fourth level. This is termed as "Balanced Hierarchy".  But in OFSAA 5.1 the leaf member can be added in any level irrespective of which is the deepest level. This is termed as "Unbalanced hierarchy". To see on a topical view it may look like balanced hierarchy is more organized and easy to maintain than unbalanced one.

Let's take an example of organization structure of a bank. The hierarchy may be designed like this. The branches in an area report to area HQ(town/city HQ), the area HQ report to Zonal offices and all the zonal offices report back to National HQ. In case of this typical structure we can see no advantage or utilization of unbalanced hierarchy.  But consider that the bank starts a new branch in south zone in a town and it's a whole new venture for them. Meaning, there are no area HQ available in that locality where this branch can report to. So the management decides to control the branch directly through the zonal HQ due to various factors like geography & cost involved etc. In a case like this, the unbalanced hierarchy allows us to add this new branch to the zonal HQ. But whereas in a balanced hierarchy we have to insert a "Dummy node" in place of area HQ and place the new branch under this node. We save the addition of "dummy nodes" in this approach, meaning the dimension members and in turn hierarchies are easily manageable and less compounded in nature to use.

How OFSAA 5.1 does support this while OFSA 4.5 is unable to? The trick lies in the way 5.1 treats the "NODES". While in OFSA 4.5 the nodes are nothing but empty blocks under which nodes and leaf can be grouped, the OFSAA 5.1 treats the nodes as dimension member themselves. As a result the entire dimension attributes that designs the nature of a Leaf can also be defined for the Nodes. The nodes can be operational part of the hierarchy just like the leafs, but in addition can act as grouping blocks also. This approach also helps us to attain some discipline in the hierarchy creation. The disciplines like a node cannot be a member of itself at any level of hierarchy can be implemented by this approach. Since in OFSA 4.5 the nodes are just grouping blocks, these kinds of rules cannot be "strictly" implemented but can just be suggested as "optimal usage guidelines". Whereas in OFSAA 5.1, the nodes are dimension members themselves whose property indirectly implies the above suggestion as a hard bound rule. This is because; a member cannot be grouped under itself. When this new concept of treating a node as member is utilized ideally the use of dimensions and hierarchy becomes less complex and more efficient.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Picking is the deemed to be the most important activity in the Warehouse Management as it is cost-intensive. Order picking in most distribution centers represents the largest area of cost, often said to account for more than 50% of labor costs. Due to the nature of distribution and fulfillment there are more outbound transactions than inbound transactions, and the labor associated with the outbound transactions is likely a big piece of the total warehouse labor budget.  Another reason for the high level of importance placed on order picking operations is its direct connection to customer satisfaction. The ability to quickly and accurately process customer orders has become an essential part of doing business. In my earlier blogs on picking I have touched upon multiple dimensions of effective picking in relation to warehouse design in order to achieve operational efficiencies. Study conducted by Norman Saenz in past can be put to use to carefully analyze tenets of effective picking. Retailers around the world can reconsider their picking approach holistically to get a step closer to being a world class organization. We extend the SMART (Simple Methods to Achieve Rapid Throughput) ways to perform the picking operation SMARTLY in a warehouse.

 • Slotting Approach and Strategy:  Warehouses need to consider the number of slots/locations required for each product. This requirement is determined by considering the desired days of on hand quantity for each product. The days-on-hand value is multiplied by the quantity ordered per day to calculate the pick location inventory. This value is divided by the capacity of the assigned location type to calculate the number of slots/locations required. Effective slotting can increase throughput, improve labor utilization, cube utilization, and reduce product damage. As a very simple rule one should assign the fast moving products to most ergonomic levels that are designed to minimize physical effort and discomfort, and hence maximize efficiency.

• Material Handling Approach and Strategy: A lot of thought and deliberation needs to be put in to have the material handling equipment design and selection process that is aligned to warehouse design and physical layout.

• Activity and Product Profiling Strategy: Items are commonly classified and profiled as FMSD (Fast, Medium, Slow and Dead moving items). Based on the number of times a warehouse operator travels to a location to pick an item can lead to item profiling. Hence picking activity within a warehouse can lead to product profiling.

• Replenishment of Pick Location Strategy: Effective replenishment of forward pick locations is crucial to order picking productivity. Overcoming this challenge can yield fruition. There are many WMS strategies like Letdowns, Min-Max, and ROP that can come in handy to perform the replenishment action. The art is which one to chose and when. Storage methods, material handling equipment decisions, WMS capabilities and warehouse design must all come together to achieve symbiosis.

• Technology Strategy: Warehouse needs to carefully assess the technology support for each picking area. Each support has its own advantage and needs to be chosen based on its merit. Some of the common picking equipments are:

Static Shelving: Commonly used for piece pick and case pick operations
Carton flow rack: Very useful where there are a high number of picks per SKU
Carousels: They have hanging racks with configurable storage bins. Picking is done in batches and this equipment is useful for high number of orders with moderate picks per order and moderate picks per SKU. They provide very high pick rates and high storage density.
Automatic Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS): This uses a system of rows of racks, each row having a dedicated retrieval unit that can move horizontally and vertically along the rack picking and putting away loads.
Pick-to-light: Very useful for high picks per SKU and high applicability in piece pick operations
Bar code scanners: They are more suited for case and pallet pick operations
Automated Conveyor and Sortation Systems: Integral to any large- scale piece pick operations

• Layout Approach and Strategy: Picking and replenishment lanes should generally be kept separate to avoid congestion. The development of pick zones within the active picking area is crucial to the productivity of the picking operation. A common philosophy is that exists is that items that are shipped together are also stored and picked together.

• Yardsticks for Effective Picking Strategy: A warehouse needs to clearly monitor various parameters that indicate the effectiveness of picking. These parameters could be pickers per order, lines per pick, and periods per shift.

Picking SMARTLY in a warehouse can increase operational efficiencies manifold and can also bring down the associated labor cost significantly. Each of the above stated aspects can be worked upon by the warehouses to chisel the success store they all aspire for.

Posted by Amit Sinha at 4:11 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Debapratim Dutta, Lead Consultant- Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

The recent financial crisis has laid bare many myths in risk management. For instance; exposures which were perceived to carry low risk, performed poorly during the crisis, when compared with the ones which were considered to be more risky. Such anomalies could happen because many financial institutions failed to capture the association among multiple sources of risk. To make things worse some board members were even heard saying that they did not understand the risk reports presented to them! Clearly board members failed to make risk adjusted decisions during days leading up to the crisis, as probably they viewed risk management as something needed only for compliance in order to earn more and more return.

Well the bad news is that days of such crony capitalism is over and taking cue from the G20 leaders Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) a few days back has put the death knell to what popularly (or unpopularly?) is known as "shadow banking"; by publishing the final set of Basel III guidelines. The Basel III regulations heralds a new era in risk management and ensures what James Gordon Brown, ex British prime minister once opined that, "market needs to free but they cannot be values free".

Now that we are all wiser and the worst is probably behind us, let's try to understand certain key areas in risk management which were overlooked by financial institutions as they were entering into the storm.

• A great number of them actually did not identify and hence did not measure and report certain risk areas such as risks in off balance sheet positions.
• Most of them failed to capture association among multiple risk silos.
• There was zero integration between risk and performance management systems.

Careful introspection reveals that probably the entire share of blame is not only due to people's greed, but the severity of the crisis could have been largely minimized if financial institutions had access to a different kind of technical architecture for their risk management systems.

While many risk vendors are still working hard to catch up with the new risk management mantras introduced by Basel III; Oracle has taken a giant leap in this pursuit and has recently launched a fully integrated suit popularly known as Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications (OFSAA).

OFSAA comes power packed with sophisticated stochastic modeling, predictive analytics, stress testing, back testing, Monte Carlo simulations and advanced bouquet of performance management analytics.  All these using a common technical architecture, data structure fully integrated with each other and a common reporting layer. Even at the level of business users, the interface is common across all risk and performance management solutions.

Such an approach to holistic risk and performance management, paves the way for risk adjusted decision making.  

Just imagine if could analyze, which are your most profitable customers and also quantify risks contributed by them using a common interface. What if you could detect fraud using a sophisticated behavior detection algorithm and also at the same time use the same technical architecture and data model for risk assessment.

Well all of these and many more exciting advanced functionalities are now possible thanks to the fully integrated OFSAA suit and last but not the least with OFSAA, financial institutions also won't have to spend sleepless nights in order to migrate to Basel III regime.

Watch out this space as we unearth more complexities in Basel III very soon in our next series!

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Shankar Viswanathan, Principal Consultant, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

With the advent of smartphones, 3G/4G technologies and the increasing trend of consumers wanting to spend lesser time shopping at the traditional brick and mortar stores, it is not a surprise that "Mobile Commerce" is touted to be the next wave.  Mobile phone manufacturers are planning to launch devices that enable these transactions, industry standards are being drafted to make this happen and there are new applications being launched everyday by zealous entrepreneurs looking to cash in on the impending boom.

Mobile Commerce however is not something that was newly invented.  It has been in existence since 1997 when vending machines capable of accepting payments via SMS text messages were introduced in Finland.  Japanese customers of NTT Docomo have been using mCommcerce solutions for more than a decade now.

However, off late with improving technology, mCommerce is moving away from an SMS text-message enabled system into applications that make use of the increasing data carrying capacities of today's 3G/4G networks.  The current trend is probably an inflection point in how customer shopping patterns change and the reason is pretty simple:

"This is like an electronic leash for most of us," said Brad Beasley, president of CrossLink Media, a mobile marketing company. "From a marketing perspective, nothing has the reach that mobile does." - Mobile Commerce Slowly Taking Hold Among Retailers, Washington Post, January 19, 2008

There is however a caveat.  It would be too simplistic if solution providers try and extend their current online strategy to the mobile platform.  It requires a different strategy, a different approach to entice customers into using their smartphones and PDAs.  This mode can be used not just as a marketing tool and payment solutions platform but also to provide personalized customer service, faster check-out options, coupons/groupons, personalized advertisements based on customer's previous shopping trends as well as current location within the store, applications that use bar-code readers that can provide with instant discounts and up-sell opportunities, etc.

The technology to provide these is still evolving and currently inadequate to meet all of the above wish list.  And this is where new technologies  like Near Field Communication (NFC) are evolving.  NFC based mobile phones are expected to hit the market in 2011 and the next killerapp is most likely solutions that leverage this technology.  From payment solutions to stores pushing coupons to customers who are inside the store, from paying for tickets to obtaining passes to events, NFC is likely to revolutionize the way we buy and make payments.  The list of possible applications of this technology in the retail industry seems endless.

Given this scenario, where is the enterprise applications space heading?  Are ERP vendors looking to adopt this new trend and provide with features that retailers and other organizations utilize to better reach out to their customers?  It appears that they are already on this path.
Vivotech, who call themselves as the leading provider of next generation mobile payments, loyalty and marketing solutions, are one of the pioneers in building solutions that are contactless, NFC-based mobile payments solutions.  Oracle has come out with a solution that integrates Oracle Retail with VivoTech's NFC card reader. 

Below is a summary of headlines on this topic:

• Android OS 2.3 is now available - the most important feature in this version is support for Near Field Communication (NFC)
• Oracle to showcase solution based on Oracle Retail - VivoTech NFC Reader integration in January, 2011 at the NRF Big Show
• Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile join to launch Isis NFC Payment Service - Google, Apple, Nokia and other mobile manufacturers are also part of this venture.
• NFC enabled handset sales to gain momentum in 2011 as Nokia, Samsung, RIM, Google and other vendors are gearing up with to release their devices.
• The National Retail Federation (NRF) in the US has come out with a mobile blueprint that recommends using NFC for contactless payment solutions.
 

2011 is likely to be the year that revolutionizes the way people shop.  From carrying wallets with cash and credit/debit cards, all that a shopper would need is probably just her mobile phone.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Warren Buffett needs no introduction. He has few peers when it comes to selecting stocks that deliver exceptional returns. He is equally well known for shying away from stocks of technology companies. At the 2000 annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, he stated, "It is not that we don't understand a technology business or its product. The reason we don't invest is because we can't understand the predictability of the economics ten years hence."

Trust Warren Buffett to deconstruct technology from a buyer's standpoint.

We have grown up as technology has evolved. We probably paid a tad too much to improve efficiencies with mainframes. We gravitated to the client-server environment for increased flexibility. Today, we can get the best of both worlds - higher efficiency and increased agility at lower costs - on the cloud.

In my conversations with customers, I hear familiar voices: "Why should I pay huge up-front costs for unused hardware/ software when demand for my products and services is flagging?" "Change the perception of my IT department from a cost center to a revenue earner!" "Give me a managed service that I need, scale it up to meet my requirements tomorrow." "Can you scale up or scale down technology infrastructure based on the changing dynamics of my business?"

The cloud echoes the sentiments of the most demanding customers. Since the cloud delivers agile, faster and cost-effective IT, it makes business sense. The cloud becomes even more compelling because it is the epitome of democracy. The start-up as well as the small and medium enterprise can reap its benefits with the pay-as-you-go model. In a level playing field, the upstart can challenge leaders with leaner, smarter IT.

Warren Buffett famously said, "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." Do you see the benefits of the cloud in the subtext?

Ravi Kumar S. is the Vice President and Global Head - Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Limited.

Posted by Ravi Kumar S. at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 19 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Karan Chadha, Associate Consultant - Business Intelligence, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

In Part 1 of this blog, I had discussed about social media data's immense potential for getting transformed into Business critical insights. I had also argued that the answer to the question about social media being the next big lever for business intelligence is a resounding Yes! However, having said that, it is imperative to understand various challenges encountered en route. In this part, I will focus on:

• Major challenges encountered by Social Media Intelligence (SMI) tools
• Some key features offered by Social Media Intelligence (SMI) tools

Challenges

All SMI tools have textual analytics as their underlying technology. Now, owing to the ambiguous and highly contextual nature of human conversations, textual analytics has always been an inexact science. To illustrate, let's say a statement like 'Ford was the greatest thing that has happened to the US' is encountered over the social space. This statement can have various interpretations. Either it can refer to the contributions of former US president Gerald Ford or it can allude to legendary Hollywood actor, Harrison Ford, or it could even be something else. So it has been a challenge for technology to understand these subtleties of human conversation and consequently, the effectiveness of SMI tools hasn't been more than 60%.

Another challenge has been in terms of positioning these tools to the organizations. Given the fact that many organizations are still struggling to manage even their structured organizational data, CIOs haven't been fully open to the idea of adding one more dimension to it. This apprehension isn't totally unjustified either considering that the fluid and noisy nature of social data makes it the most challenging to integrate into BI platforms. And the fact that the market still lacks mature and robust SMI tools has further resulted in lower penetration of these tools.

Key Features

Among a repertoire of features that SMI tools offer, three of them stand out for me:

• Geographic and Demographic Bucketing
  An insight like half the people liked this new launch and half didn't is far less useful than an insights like most of the teens liked it and most of the middle aged haven't or most of the people in southern region appreciated it and most in the western region didn't. These kind of bucketed insights empower companies to prepare segment specific strategies. 
• Knowing  the Influencers
  Among millions of participants on the social space, there are a few who drive conversations and play a critical role in shaping opinions. For instance take the case of a few social activists who are frantically posting all over the social space about the environmental-friendliness of a new product and thus influencing the opinions of many. Several SMI tools provide this feature of identifying such opinion leaders giving companies a chance to foster relationships with them.
• Red Flag Alerts
  Several SMI tools provide red flag alerts when a situation demands an immediate action. Let me illustrate this with an example. Let's say a company comes up with a new version of its free-to-download music player software having a critical bug. An SMI tool, through the analysis of several customer comments over the social media space will raise a red flag thus alerting the company about the bug. This insight gives the company an option to immediately take off the product, fix the bug and put it back thus preventing a widespread loss of face. Now such a prompt response would be made possible only by the real time insights of an SMI tool. Nothing else would have sufficed in raising the red flag so early.

To conclude, I will say that Social Media is no longer an amusing world to be watched from the sidelines. Its challenges notwithstanding, it is time for companies to start integrating Social Media into their BI strategy and leverage its immense potential.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Ankita Nagpal, Senior Associate Consultant, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Maintenance, in all its essence, is an absolutely indispensable activity for all organizations today. Downtimes or any damage due to malfunctioning of an equipment are most expensive and thus an immense squeeze in the profits. Almost each and every organization across industries have woken up to this fact and employ some or the other maintenance system.

Furthermore to just having a system in place to take care of the maintenance activities, organizations today are moving towards most intelligent and sophisticated methods of maintenance viz. Predictive Maintenance and Reliability Centered Maintenance.

The goal of Predictive Maintenance is to perform maintenance exactly when the equipment needs it - neither earlier nor later than necessary. This essentially means tracking key indicators over time to predict when the equipment needs repair. Predictive maintenance programs measure equipment on a regular basis, track these measurements over time, and take preventive action whenever the measurements are about to go outside the operating limits. Repairing equipment as-needed requires fewer man-hours and parts than corrective maintenance.

In a similar fashion, Reliability Centered Maintenance focuses on prioritizing maintenance efforts based on equipment's importance to operations, its downtime cost in revenue and customer loss, its cost of repair, and its impact on safety. It offers extensive analytical data to ensure that the critical equipments are identified and maintained on a priority. Reliability maintenance depends on the same measurements used in predictive maintenance, but saves additional maintenance cost by spending less effort on lesser important equipments.

The EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) module in the Oracle E-Business Suite family offers these refined maintenance techniques of Predictive Maintenance as well as Reliability Centered Maintenance.

But as they say, just implementing something does not ensure a job been done. It is equally important for people working with these methods to understand them thoroughly and learn how to identify potential problem areas. If an intelligent solution is implemented and work practices change accordingly, phenomenal results become apparent pretty soon.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Vyshnavi Allamsetty, System Engineer - AIA Center of Excellence, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

In today's competitive market place, the organizations have to concentrate on building robust, maintainable and high performing applications in order to withstand the competition. In addition, they need to build composite applications which adhere to standard principles and reduce human effort. This need of various organizations forced the S/W developers to build extremely agile applications and in order to implement the best practices in applications, the developers have to write loads of code.

In order to overcome the above challenge, Application Development Framework provided by Oracle proves to be the best solution. It is an end-to-end framework, and is built on the top of JAVA platform. One of its key features is that it is directly supported by IDE Oracle Jdeveloper 11g.Seperating applications into the Model ,View and Controller layers enables the components to be reused across applications and also simplifies maintenance.

Developing applications using ADF minimizes the need to write code as they provide implementation of design patterns in the framework, thus helping developers to focus on business logic and user experience. Also, the drag and drop facility of ADF simplifies the development of user interface. For example:

1. The developer can drag the components like INPUT TEXT, OUTPUT TEXT etc from the component palette to the page and facilitate users to provide their inputs into the text boxes.
2. The developer can just drag and drop the component on the page and create a view in the form of table, graph, form etc.

The advantages of ADF as discussed below will further help to support that ADF helps in enhancing the productivity.

Oracle ADF Advantages

• Ajax Functionality: ADF has over 150 JSF components with built in Ajax-functionality. The use of these components makes the development of applications easier than ever. This functionality makes it easy to develop such applications which are otherwise costly, lengthy to develop and would take time to market.
• User Interface: The Visual and declarative tools for each layer of ADF, integrated into the IDE, simplify the development of applications. The application development using Jdeveloper offers a visual and declarative experience i.e. the developers are capable of customizing their design anytime and anywhere using property inspectors, controls and component pallets.
• Reusability: The components of Jdeveloper like ADF Task flows, JSF Templates and other business components enables reusability features thus enhancing productivity.
• Technology Choice: The developer can choose any technology of his choice in each layer of development of application. Oracle ADF doesn't enforce a specific technology on developer.

Considering the architecture of ADF and development environment of Oracle Jdeveloper 11g, ADF proves to facilitate both novice and experienced developers to develop more productive JAVA applications.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Oracle AmberPoint's products provide visibility and management across heterogeneous systems, Real-time monitoring and diagnosis of critical business transactions, and stronger end-to-end governance that allows customers to manage the entire lifecycle of SOA based solutions.
 
Oracle AmberPoint's Management System incorporates Multiple Aspects of SOA Management like
Application Discovery :  Complete view and control of the heterogeneous distributed systems and Ensures visibility of the entire heterogeneous SOA environment,  Automatically discovers components and their interactions
Application Performance Management :  Tracks overall performance and availability, Monitors customer-oriented service level agreements
Business Transaction Management : Ensures reliability of individual business transactions, Tracks business transaction progress in real-time and points issues if any,  Identifies impacted customers to provide for improved customer retention
SOA Governance : Run-time governance for services, Discovers and reports run-time services and metrics to governance repositories
 
some of the benifits for Oracle's Fusion Middleware stack

• Provides out-of-box support and management of heterogeneous distributed applications
• Expands expertise in the SOA Management and Business Transaction Management segment
• Make AIA integrations easier to monitor and manage
• Automatic discovery and management of heterogeneous environments
  Real-time monitoring of critical business transactions and completion of business processes
• Tracking business and user service level agreements
• Provide for end-to-end governance that allows management of the entire lifecycle of SOA solutions

With this we come to an end of an insight on Oracle Acquisition of AmberPoint - Strengthens Oracle Fusion Middleware with SOA Management Capabilities! 

Posted by Anu Samantha at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Jaideep Ranjan Vijayakar, Lead Consultant - Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

We have till now discussed about the imperatives of mobilizing the enterprise, the basic configurations that are broadly adopted by organizations, the stages and types of enterprise mobility and the implementation considerations before an organization begins its enterprise mobilization journey. We will now round off the discussion with a look at the future and challenges.

Future Outlook and Challenges

Network- At current technology levels existing WiFi networks (802.11 a/b/g) and cellular carrier service cannot provide the same data transfer speeds as a conventional wired office intranet. They can efficiently transmit low volume data like email and calendar information but are not very efficient for transmitting high volume data like intense applications and video.

Wireless LANs need to be upgraded to the 802.11 n standard, which was finally approved by IEEE in October 2009, and is capable of delivering throughput speeds up to 300 Mbps. Cellular carrier services need to provide 4G services like mobile WiMAX which can provide two to four times the performance of 3G networks today and can scale up to ten times the performance in the future.

Devices- Tablet PCs are now moving in to fill in the gap that currently exists between Smart Phones /PDAs and WiFi enabled Laptops / Netbooks. Apple's latest entrant into this space the iPad is sure to heat up the competition and as we saw in the mp3 player market truly shake it up. It is expected to provide a boost to Application development which could then enable new mobile enterprise applications to be developed.

Security- While existing security solutions like IPSec or SSL VPN are adequate for providing security and authentication for remote access and WLAN they are not designed to manage switching between multiple networks. They provide open network access to all access devices which could become a security risk in the case of Smart Phones. A mobile SSL VPN ensures mobile devices are only allowed access based on user identity and security of the device. It provides security and control to access only authorized and relevant applications with no direct network connection.

Applications- Role specific and network aware applications like CRM, SFA, Workflow Approvals and Decision Making Systems need to be deployed to improve productivity and expand coverage. These applications need to look and work the same irrespective of the platform over which they are accessed. Using enterprise applications which are developed by major software vendors can mitigate this since these applications are developed to work for a variety of major platforms and devices like the Blackberry and iPhone. Mobile middleware is another piece which can be used to perform the interaction between the user device and any custom developed server based application.

Mobile carriers also need to ensure that their networks provide adequate mobile data security for the packets of mobile data being transported. Wireless networking vendors are providing newer security products which enable mobile service providers to perform inspection of the GPRS tunneling protocol and deep mobile data packet inspection.

Conclusion

In conclusion organizations that harness the capability of the smart mobile devices and deploy enterprise applications and tools over the mobile network will gain an "unfair competitive advantage". These organizations have already seen significant gains in employee productivity and business coverage. They are also seeing some tangible monetary gains like increased revenue, lower operation costs and intangibles like enhanced customer satisfaction and differentiated market offering.

For more details on the Future Outlook and Challenges in providing Enterprise Mobility, please see the article "Mobilizing the Enterprise- Strategies and Technologies to Drive Organizational Readiness" in FINsights.

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Oracle marks a new era for its apps with the introduction of Fusion this year. It has tried to combine the best in class technology and functionality from its acquisitions and bring the best for end users.

However let us discuss what can be the key growth drivers both Industry wise and Functionality wise which would drive the future of Oracle apps

Key growth industries
Banking and Financial services have been the key growth driver for Oracle apps and I feel it would still remain so, due to robust product capabilities. Following are some of the key growth industries within this vertical

a) Private Equity: The next generation would be dominated by private equity players who would bring a new wave of mergers and acquisitions in the industry especially in the financial services. Oracle needs to provide some plug in-plug out kind of acquisition playbook solution where they can deploy solutions rapidly to meet the industry needs
b) Microfinance: This is a niche industry and does not deploy high end apps for their day to day needs. But as this industry grows in new markets with the liberalization of economies they would try to be more techno savvy and integrated.
c) State Treasuries / World Bank: As the BRICS economies / developing countries grow in size, the state and federal treasuries in these economies would go for modernization using ecommerce. Same would be the case with organizations like IMF, ADB etc

The other industries which would provide growth triggers would be Insurance / Re Insurance, New Stock Exchanges in under Developed / Developing countries, Regulatory needs like IFRS and PSD

Key growth drivers for functionality
Existing customers would look at new product functionalities / features which would serve as the next generation growth engines, some of those are:

a) Single database / data ware house solution for Accounting, Reporting and Statutory needs
b) End to end solution like embedded imaging, spreadsheets etc
c) Simplify accounting and compliance
d) Reduce the management reporting / period close cycle
e) Real time access to information for different users of data
f) Sustainability reporting
g) Non financial reporting like corporate governance, EVA etc

Oracle would have to be very innovative to match its competitors for all the above. But the key mantra would be to keep it simple and reduce the time to market for the new industries and solutions.

Posted by Sachin Chitlange at 3:51 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Joydeep Dey, Associate Consultant - Oracle Insurance COE, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Underwriting is the process of examining and then accepting or rejecting Insurable risk at an appropriate premium. The premium amount depends on type of risk being covered, historical data, actuarial calculations and local regulations. If the insurance company is too conservative in choosing the risk or demands high price for risk coverage then they lose to competition whereas if they are too aggressive to acquire market share or become liberal in risk pricing they may end up paying higher claims. Hence underwriting is a specialized task which is done by a chosen few in each insurance company.

Underwriters decide whether the risk can be taken and if so under what terms. They verify parameters which decides premium, adjust the final premium amount, modify terms of contract and write the policy. Due to criticality and complexity of the task underwriters are highly valued and costly resource in any insurance company.

Because of criticality and cost associated with the underwriting process, more and more companies are opting for Information Technology based solutions for their underwriting process. These software solutions will not only help in reducing the underwriting cost but will also make the underwriting process more efficient.  Some of the other key reasons for using the underwriting software are:

• Shortage of skilled man power, which can be a bottleneck for growing business.
• Higher operational cost & discrepancies associated with manual underwriting.
• Reducing the overall underwriting time for more complex insurance product.
• Managing multiple lines of business with numerous optional features and rider
• Reacting to market change and providing On Demand insurance by developing customized products quickly.
• Ensuring regulatory compliances.
• Need to provide agency quick quote even for complex customized proposals
• Achieving further cost reduction by off-shoring some of the underwriting processes which may not be possible in manual underwriting environment.

Apart from above mentioned points, underwriting software based solution also offer the following advantages  

• Better data capturing which gives actuarial insight in long term.
• Classify customer based of claim experience and profile value using statistical analysis techniques like factoring, clustering.
• Reduction in adverse selection and hence improve claim ratio.

Some of the desired technical features which should be considered while identifying the appropriate underwriting software are 

• Easy integration with existing policy administration system and workflow system
• Easy to use and gives features of graphical programming so that end-users like actuary, underwriters can configure new rating rules.
• Report generation, Batch rating and scenario analysis capability.
• Scalable and robust

Oracle's Insbridge Rating and Underwriting is one of the established software in the current market and it supports P&C, Life, Health and Disability Carriers. Insbridge can be integrated with Oracle Policy Admin or any other IT system using web services.  Its Web 2.0 graphical user interface provides intuitive programming feature whereas its report generation capability are streamlined for many of insurance carrier needs.  Scenario and Pricing Manager components of Insbridge give sensitivity analysis of pricing based on different rating parameter and generate different scenarios.  Insbridge can be deployed on any major database or application server.

Please post your comment on this blog regarding features of Insbridge Rating and Underwriting and how it propels insurance carriers to obtain full benefit of underwriting automation. 

Posted by Guest Blogger at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Jaideep Ranjan Vijayakar, Lead Consultant - Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

In the previous installment we discussed about the stages and types of enterprise mobility. In this installment we will discuss about implementation considerations before an organization begins its enterprise mobilization journey.

One of the main concerns for the CIO is to balance enterprise security with "technology populism". Technology Populism is the need or desire of employees to continue to use the kind of devices that they currently use in their personal life for their official work. This means that along with the RIM Blackberry, the CIO now needs to also allow employees using iPhone to receive corporate email. Mobile devices are among the most difficult to secure. Even among those not all mobile devices can be equally secured. These two facts added together make the need to support a variety of mobility devices enough to give the CIO sleepless nights. In addition to this there is also the need to ensure that the mobilization program makes the maximum impact within the organization.

The mobilization journey thus needs to start with the creation of a comprehensive wireless and mobile strategy and policies.  The strategy should lay out the constituents of the complete mobile ecosystem including

1. Users to provide mobility to
2. Technologies (networks) to be deployed
3. Devices to be supported
4. Security Requirements
5. Applications to "mobilize"
6. External Parties impacted
7. Implementation Partners
8. Support Structure

Let's take each of these individually.

Users to provide mobility to- Field employees and others who would gain the most from a productivity and work-life balance point of view need to be addressed first.  This could include traditionally desk bound employees who shuttle between meeting rooms or travel long distance between home and office and who could more effectively utilize this unproductive time if given the ability to connect to the office network.

Technologies (networks) to be deployed- Wireless LANs can be setup using 802.11 a/b/g standards for access within the campus. With the final IEEE ratification of the n standard in October 2009, enterprises can look at incorporating this in their WLAN roadmap. The n standard provides high speed connectivity, longer range, and improved reliability and coverage (fewer dead spots) over a/b/g.  It also has a lower cost of ownership in deployment and maintenance.

EDGE, HSDPA or EVDO 3G services through mobile carrier networks can be used for providing email, calendaring and other commodity information.

Devices to be supported- Standardization of Smart Phone range enables centralization of control and easier management of security of mobile assets. However there is also the need to balance enterprise security with user efficiency and preferences. Employees would often prefer to continue to use the devices that they currently use in their personal life for their official work. Of late organizations have started moving away from corporate liable/ sponsored subscriptions to individually liable subscriptions. Which means that employees can get their own smart phone and data plan and the organization will allow it to access the enterprise network. 

Security Requirements- Data Security as well as Network Security needs to be considered. Mobile devices are among the most difficult to secure. Even among these not all mobile devices can be equally secured. When applications are accessed over mobile devices there is a need to ensure that the data does not get saved onto the mobile device. This can be achieved through SSL or Ipsec VPN.  If the data needs to be saved then device storage encryption can be adopted.

Applications to "mobilize"- This could be both internal facing and external facing. Email, calendaring, contact information are rolled out initially. Road map needs to be developed for roll out of role specific application in the future. This includes mobilizing existing enterprise applications as well as developing new mobile applications for integration. Applications which impact P&L functions (line of businesses) or are used by key business groups, need to be given higher priority as they are shown to provide higher ROI.

External Parties impacted- This would include suppliers who get information over mobile devices or internet, customers who are serviced through mobile channels or more effectively by field workers. Service providers who provide wireless carrier services and secure authentication services need to be carefully considered and incorporated.

Implementation Partners- Organizations need to integrate mobility into their enterprise architecture and applications. A system integrator with in depth experience in developing and implementing mobility strategies would be able to provide the industry vertical best practices along with the latest cutting edge mobile technologies that can be used. They can also help draft and implement the mobility strategy. This is especially useful if the company does not have the experience or resources to dedicate to implementation.

Support Structure- The implementation of an enterprise mobility strategy needs to involve, in addition to the CIOs office, the HRM function, P&L representatives, legal, telecommunications and the Organizational Change Management function. It cannot be a minor IT initiative which does not have an enterprise wide focus. There needs to be a comprehensive wireless and mobile strategy along with a set of operational policies. 

To summarize enterprise mobilization needs to provide for flexibility within boundaries. It should address the varied needs of the different types of worker groups and at the same time be consistent and manageable.

For more details on the Enterprise Mobility and implementation steps - Please see the article "Mobilizing the Enterprise- Strategies and Technologies to Drive Organizational Readiness" in FINsights.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 5:01 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Intercompany transactions get invoked when order is booked in one geography and fulfilled by enother entity in a second geograpahy. It may also include procuring the material from an internal location and shipping from another location to fulfill the customer demand. It may also involve taking the order in the first entity, routing the transaction through the second enity for securing tax benefits and finally shipping from the entity in a third geography to the end customer.

Intercompany transactions have a greater deal of complaxity compared to standard sales order transactions. In my subsequent entries I will cover how Intercompany transactions can be managed in any ERP environment to derive maximum benefit from a global ERP deployment.

Posted by Somnath Majumdar at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Cross docking is a common practice amongst the retailers and has been widely acknowledged to provide operational efficiencies and scales of economies. In my earlier blog I had mentioned about the warehouse shape and size and how it relates to effective cross docking practices. Let us take this discussion a little further.

Many retailers worldwide are deliberating if there is a distinct type of building shape that lends itself to optimal cross docking practices. Many a factor and considerations come into picture before a correct answer can be arrived at. Some retail warehouses may engage in planned cross docking where as the others may do it as a primary practice. This is one of the most important factors that need to be considered whether the building is meant to be primarily or even exclusively a cross dock operation, versus planned cross docks in combination with traditional wave picking or other fulfillment models. It is apparent that if significant storage and outbound functions like pick, pack, and ship operations are required; there is a different set of layout requirements than that for a pure cross dock facility.

Many a research has proved that cross docks with many doors are generally less efficient than cross docks with fewer doors. "I" shaped warehouse design is the most popular for cross dock buildings and is being adopted by retailers more and more these days. Using this design load or freight can be unloaded from an arriving trailer and carried over a relatively short distance across the dock to be loaded into an outbound trailer. This model has proved to be very effective when it comes to LTL shipments but this may not be the only one. In the LTL business model use of cross docking to transfer local pickups to the right outbound delivery truck is paramount. This is an example of a simple door to store shipment model. There are other popular warehouse cross dock designs like X, H, and T-shaped cross dock warehouses.

Like any other situation, there may be no one right answer but there is an optimum design just there for you. The trick lies in discovering it. For example very large docks should not use the I-design. All shapes feasible should be considered, with precise modeling to estimate labor costs and throughput. Many retailers ship to their end customers and cross dock the shipment at consolidated distribution centers. This is where the ERP or Host system could be modeled to provide the critical cross dock related information in the pick release instruction to the WMS. This information could relate to the data pieces identifying the consolidation distribution centers and the day of the week when this is to be performed. This would be more relevant to the warehouse performing planned cross docking rather than exclusive cross docking.

Retailer pan globe need to balance the equation of robust systems and optimum warehouse shapes to derive maximum benefits. IT follows business. It can be made use of to meet the business imperatives and help an organization become world class. Optimum warehouse shape is a SMART way to achieve cross docking efficiencies. It is a Simple Method to Achieve Rapid Throughput.

Posted by Amit Sinha at 3:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Ranjan Kumar Singh, Senior Associate Consultant - Oracle Insurance COE, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

In the earlier blog on "Pain Points" of Insurance Industry, we discussed the key challenges faced by Insurers in the present business environment. In order to mitigate these challenges, Insurance industry is now trying to leverage information technology and web enablement to create sustainable value and maintain the rate of growth. There is also a need to integrate emerging technologies with existing products and processes in order to stay competitive.

Listed below are few key points where the industry needs to harness the power of IT for:

• Improving its core competencies in key business processes like :
  o   Underwriting
  o   Policy administration
  o   Claims Management
• Effective Customer communications and satisfaction by delivering high levels of customer service
• Innovations in product development for meeting the market needs
• Strengthening distribution by channel development
• Improving Risk management system to support underwriting, loss minimization activities, strategic decision making and actuarial sciences
• Meeting regulatory compliance

To meet the Insurance Industry needs, all IT Product vendors are developing new and refined solutions.

In this Blog we would discuss some of the Oracle Insurance products offerings which would help insurers to mitigate their pain points. These products cater to the key process of the Insurance Business. 

• Oracle Insurance Policy Administration: It is a rule based flexible policy administration solution which supports policy issue, billing, collection, policy processing and claims. The tool also helps in product development, improves speed to market and reduces total cost of ownership for a policy lifecycle.
• Oracle Insurance Insbridge Rating and Underwriting: It is a web-based rating and underwriting tool which can be used to build and manage complex rule based algorithms to support underwriting logic across various lines of business. It also helps in new rating methodology, multi-tiering and multi-variate pricing model, efficient distribution management, improved risk management and enhanced regulatory compliance.
• Oracle Documaker: It is a powerful, adaptive enterprise document automation platform used by Insurers worldwide to acquire, create, manage and present structured, on-demand, and interactive customer communications. Typical client communication which can be automated leveraging documaker is Policy copy, Claims correspondence, Marketing campaigns and Bills & statements. It helps in cost reduction, improved operational efficiency and Quick and consistent customer communication.
• Oracle Insurance Claims Solution: It is a rule based enterprise wide end to end claims processing system which enables insurers to improve quality and efficiency of claims handling. It gives an improved visibility into the claims management system thereby reducing cost of claims handling, improved customer service and efficient regulatory compliance. This tool is based on Siebel claim.
• Oracle Financial services Revenue Management and Billing for Insurance: It is a modern rule based system for billing, payment and collection in Insurance business. It increases revenue opportunities while reducing cost. It also helps in improving customer service, provides sales channel support and consolidates billing Infrastructure.
• Oracle Insurance Insight: It is a business intelligence tool that allows insurers to aggregate policy, claims and regulatory compliance data at various levels like a customer, and enterprise, a region or a line of business. It helps in better risk management as the insurers are well aware of the client's history. It also helps is cost reduction and better execution of strategic decisions. Oracle Insurance Insight is based on OBIEE framework.

In case you are aware of other Oracle tools or benefits apart from what we have covered please do post your comments as a part of the blog.

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It is generally seen that organizations are looking for customization in the following fields:

1. Functionality change in the product by changing the source code.

2. Change/modification in the workflow.

3. A modified GUI adhering to the organization standards.

4. Customized reports.

OTM has done a lot to improve at least points 2, 3 and 4. Let us take them one at a time.

Functionality change in the product by changing the source code: This would require an in-depth knowledge of the OTM source code and would require a huge effort. This will be costly and definitely not supported by Oracle. This should be done only in case of extreme need and when all other options have been exhausted.

Change/modification in the workflow: OTM provides a very flexible way of building up a workflow with most of the processes being highly configurable. It uses Agents, Milestones, and statuses to configure the workflow. Most of the workflow requirements of an organization can be easily configured with minimal customization.

A modified GUI adhering to the organization standards: OTM provides screen sets and manager layouts to change the screens of OTM. Fields can be hidden or made visible. Default values can be added to individual fields. The menus can be changed according to the user roles. And all this is configurable with no customization required. If a very specific change is required which cannot be configured then the OTM pages can be even customized with minimal effort. The skeleton pages are already provided while creating the manager layouts. The only thing to take care is that during any OTM upgrades the pages are maintained and restored. Apart from this even the colour themes and logos can be changed to suit the organizations needs. The look and feel of OTM can be changed very easily to suit the organizations needs with minimal customization.

Customized reports: OTM provides a host of seeded reports but often organizations have specific needs and would prefer having a different report. From OTM 6.0 xml publisher has been added as a part of the product. Any report built using xml publisher is absolutely compatible with OTM. The reports functionality has come a long way from just having html and pdf formats to a laundry list of formats in which the user can view the reports. Report generation does not require any separate server or database. Customized reports can be generated with very basic configuration changes in OTM.

Apart from these the users can have custom logs and tables in database which will help debug issues in OTM. Thus we see that although some amount of customization is required to meet the needs of the organization but most of them are configurable using the features of OTM.

Even after all this customization is required then the below points and many more have to be pondered upon before customization is chosen as an option. When would you say "Yes" to customization? Some points to consider are:

1. My organization is reluctant to change the way of doing things.

2. It would require a huge training effort for the organization to adapt to the new processes of the product.

3. My business processes are better, unique, and absolutely critical for my business to run and would require the product to be customized to make it happen.

4. I have money in my purse for customizing the product.

5. I have a very capable IT team which can build and maintain the customization.

6. I am sure that the future releases of the product will not contain the customization I am doing on the product.

When would I say "No" to customization? Again some points to consider are:

1. The processes built in the product look good and can be beneficial to my business.

2. I do not have the money to afford the customization.

3. My organization is flexible and can adapt to the new way of doing things.

4. Maintaining the customization will be difficult for me.

5. I am very much dependent on the product vendor for all the support.

6. The future releases might contain the functionality I am looking for.

All this and more should be properly debated before any decision is taken. Customizing a product is not a sin but it should be done only after proper discussion after considering all options.

Acknowledgement: Anirban Roy

Posted by Nilabja Dey at 4:58 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )